DiSCOÚRSt Il: 439' the evening worship on theLord's-day with excellent discourses ; some of whichhe copied from the lips of some ofthe greatest' preachers of the last age : There :hls unbodied spirit is able to sus tain the sublimest raptures of devotion, which run through the worshippers in that heavenly state.; though here on earth I have sometimes seen the pious pleasure too strong for him : and while he has been reading the things of God to his household, the devo tion of his heart has broken through his eyes, and interrupted his voice, andcommanded a sacred pause and silence. He enjoyed an intimate friendship with that great and vene-' rable man Dr. Owen, and this was mutually cultivated with zeal and delight on both sides till death divided them. Theworldhas already been acquainted, that it is to the pious industry of Sir John Ilartopp, that we are indebted for many of those sermons and discourses of thé Doctor's, which have been lately published in folio. A long and familiar acquaintance enabled him also to furnish 'many memoirs or matters of fact, towards that brief ac- count oftheDoctor's life, which is prefixed to that volume, though it was drawn up in the present form, with various enlargements by another hand. Now can we suppose two such souls to have beëa so happily intimate on earth, and may we not imagine they found each other among the brighter spirits onhigh ? May we not indulge ourselves to believe, that our late honoured friend hath been congratulated uponhis arrival by that holy man that assisted to direct and leadhim thither ? Nor is it improbable that he has- foundother happy souls there whowere numbered amonghis pious acquaintance on earth. Shall 1 mention that excellent man Sir Thomas Abney, who was his late forerunner to heaven, and had not finished twomonths there before Sir John Hartopp's arrival ? Happy spirits ! May I congratulate your meeting in the celestial regions ? But the world and the churches mourn your absence ; and the Protestant Dissenters lament the loss of two of their fair- est ornaments and honours. 'And is there not the same reason to 'believe, that our de= parted friend hath by this time renewed his sacred endearments with those kindred spirits, that were once related tohim in some of the nearest bonds of flesh and blood.? There. they rejoice together in unknown satisfaction, they wait and long forthe arrival Of those whom they left behind; and for whose immortal welfare. they hada solicitous concern in the state oftheir mortality. This thought opens my way to address the posterity, the kindred, and the friends ofthe deceased, in the fifth remark. Sect. VIII. -.flu address to thefriends"and relatives of the deceased. V. If the perfections of blessed spirits above consists in a glorious increase of those virtues and, graces which were begun below, let us see to it then,, that those graces and those virtues are begun in its here, or they will never be perfected
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